The Nobel Prize in Literature 2020 has been awarded to American poet Louise Gluck. "The Swedish Academy has decided to award the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature to Louise Gluck for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal," said the official feed of the Nobel Prize.
Gluck is the first American writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 27 years. She is the 16th American woman and the first to take the award home since Toni Morrison in 1993.
The poetess' oeuvre includes poetry collections such as Firstborn (1968), The House on Marshland (1975), Descending Figure (1980), The Triumph of Achilles (1985), The Wild Iris (1992), Meadowlands (1997), and Faithful and Virtuous Night (2014) among many more. She also has two prose collections -- Proofs and Theories: Essays on Poetry (1994) and American Originality: Essays on Poetry (2017).
Gluck has also been the recipient of numerous awards for her body of work. Her extremely long list of literary honours include the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, National Humanities Medal, National Book Critics Circle Award, and Bollingen Prize.
The American poet would take home 10 m Swedish kronor or $1,123,191. The award is handed to a writer who, as Alfred Nobel put it, had produced the most outstanding work in the field of literature in 'an ideal direction'.
Some of the well-known authors who were touted to win the prestigious award this year were Japanese author Haruki Murakami, Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Antiguan-American writer Jamaica Kincaid, Chinese author Yan Lianke, Canadian poet Anne Carson and Russian novelist Lyudmila Ulitskaya.